The Official OcUK Vista Licencing Questions FAQ Thread

DJMK4 · 7 Jan 2007 at 20:12

If i were to purchase Vista OEM, How many times could i install it on the same machine?

i.e. if i were to install it, then 6 months i wanted to do a complete wipe and re-install, would it work?

What if i decided to change a piece of hardware..like the motherboard..and do a clean wipe, could i re-install it?

FatRakoon · 7 Jan 2007 at 20:14

Big red said:
if i can throw my tuppance worth in , i have 4 pc,s using xp pro and ran them from the start of xp . i have rebuilt them, improved them and reinstaled xp a number of times but from what i have read on these pages, is that if i change the pc too much then an oem version of vista may be made redundant and a new one required , surely then a retail version would justify the extra money for peace of mind -- am i right?/wrong. as anyone on this forum is a pc buff and will change his/here pc at different times,where as joe public wont mess with their pc and an oem version would suffice

Yeah, you're right.

I too like to upgrade my PC, sometimes this means the Motherboard, of course it does, but mostly it just means the usuals like GFX / Audio etc.

I reinstall XP even when it does not need it. A Good example, is that this current installation on the PC Im on right now was installed on NOV 15 2006 so not quite 2 months and already Im thinking of an install.

Ok, so this is a bit OTT but I dont think Ive gone longer than 6 months since year DOT

shuntfield · 7 Jan 2007 at 20:15

[Sniper][Wolf] said:
If i were to purchase Vista OEM, How many times could i install it on the same machine?

i.e. if i were to install it, then 6 months i wanted to do a complete wipe and re-install, would it work?

Yes

[Sniper][Wolf] said:
What if i decided to change a piece of hardware..like the motherboard..and do a clean wipe, could i re-install it?

No - not the motherboard as Microsoft determine that a Motherboard AND its associated components make the machine a new system.

If I recall the Price of Vista Retail is almost double that of Vista OEM, therefore if you plan on more than 2x motherboards in its lifetime then get the retail if not then get the OEM.

I have had 2x Motherboards under XP so I'm happy with OEM.

Shunts..

DJMK4 · 7 Jan 2007 at 20:37

shuntfield said:
Yes

No - not the motherboard as Microsoft determine that a Motherboard AND its associated components make the machine a new system.

If I recall the Price of Vista Retail is almost double that of Vista OEM, therefore if you plan on more than 2x motherboards in its lifetime then get the retail if not then get the OEM.

I have had 2x Motherboards under XP so I'm happy with OEM.

Shunts..

But how will they determine when a new piece of hardware has been installed?

Also what other hardware would be concluded as having a "New system"?

shuntfield · 7 Jan 2007 at 20:43

They determine the hardware installed from a set of keys that are sent to the activation server when you activate the product.

In Windows XP more than three changes of hardware devices at once or in a set period would force an activation. The new hardware key set would then be sent to Microsoft.

In this case, should the Key that provides the motherboard description be changed, and all its components such as north/south bridge BIOS id etc change then it would be determined that this is a motherboard change and not the "original" computer, and therefore would not be activated.

Microsofts Licencing says that the Motherboard is the only component that will force a new licence requirement, as that is significantly large a piece of hardware to warrant it not being an original machine.

The Graphics Board Memory hard drive etc is not defined in their rules as far as I can see and therefore would not stop the system from being reactivated once re-installed.

As I said in my early post, the OEM version of the software has to be supported by its system manufacturer, when the motherboard has been upgraded then it is no longer the original system, and the manufacturer cannot be expected to support a computer that they did not build, the OEM system is designed for the hundreds of small System builders that build for customers, and its them that its designed for.

Shunts...

Energize · 7 Jan 2007 at 21:40

If you activate vista then make a ghost of it will you be able to re install vista using the image without activating?

DJMK4 · 7 Jan 2007 at 21:41

Energize said:
If you activate vista then make a ghost of it will you be able to re install vista without activating?

No, you will have to re-activate

Energize · 7 Jan 2007 at 21:43

So effectivley microsoft have defeated the entire point of ghosting. :rolleyes:

shuntfield · 7 Jan 2007 at 22:08

Energize said:
If you activate vista then make a ghost of it will you be able to re install vista using the image without activating?

I'm not too sure on this, if you Ghost it back to the exact same hardware, then I'd guess that it would still work, as long as the software was activated before the Ghosting.

I'm not going to say a definate no, because at this stage I don't know, but because the hardware has not changed then one would assume that it would be fine.

Shunts...

Meatball · 7 Jan 2007 at 22:09

Meatball said:
Do you need to have XP Retail to upgrade to Home Premium Retail or will XP OEM suffice?

Supertaff · 7 Jan 2007 at 22:32

Other possible OEM problem

Hi Guys,

I bought an OEM version of Windows XP Pro with an Upgrade voucher for Vista Business Included. The install of XP and activiation worked fine.

When I've tried to use the upgrade voucher it has been refused by the MS website. I think this is down to the OEM Vista upgrade licence agreement that states that the Vista licence has to have been supplied from an 'Authorized System Builder'. I think the 'Authorized System Builder's must have a way of loading up their upgrade keys onto the MS website before they can be used, eg Dell, HP, etc

I don't know if this is the same for OEM Vista direct purchases but it may be worth someone looking into this. I was thinking about buying the Vista OEM to do my upgrade to Vista but I am now nervous the same problem could occur.

You may get the disk and the key, but it may not activate.

Cheers

Taff

Burnsy2023 · 8 Jan 2007 at 00:18

deshepherd said:
When I upgraded mboard + CPU (and as side-effect network interface) my OEM winXP install considered that too much had changed and it needed reactivating which just took a short phone call where I type a list of nubers windows gave me and an automated system dictated another set back to me which I typed in and voila it was happy again. This behaviour didn't surprise me as from reading up on the MS web site it was what I'd expected - I'd done some research to check that XP would allow me to change mboard/CPU etc first.

One key point that I found was that there are *two* distinct forms of XP OEM

1) The version supplied on the big PC company machines (i.e. Dell, HP, etc) are tied to a key in the BIOS ... on these you can change anything so long as the BIOS is still recognised as being the same ... i.e. on these if you change mboard then you are probably stuck ... I wasn't in this category so have no idea if you can get a reactivation if you do change mboard (I think the webpages do comment that if you have a fault on the mboard then you need to replace with the same mboard)

2) The 2nd OEM version is the one that small system builders would use and which is what places like OC sell ... this one generates a key from the major components of the PC (mboard, CPU, mem, ethernet MAC, HDD id etc) and if more than certain number change within 6 months then the reactivation I used is needed.

I think the fact that there are these two OEM versions of XP with significantly different abilities to upgrade hardware leads reams of dogmatic statements about what you can do with an OEM license that may only apply to a subset of OEM installs.

Situation with Vista may well be similar

Did you guys miss me?

And just to point out, my suspension was requested

Anyway, you have made an error in your assumptions. Your forgetting the key concept that technical means to prevent piracy is different to the legal aspect.

Both OEM versions use the same licence and therefore have the same restrictions, the fact that one is locked to the BIOS has no bearing on this.

Burnsy

Burnsy2023 · 8 Jan 2007 at 00:20

vairo said:
i thought OEM u can install only on brand new sistem which u havn't used before, which didnt have windows on it before,i am confused again :/
sorry for double posting !!!

This is the reason behind the OEM licence, however there are no direct restrictions to prevent an OEM licence being used on a existing system.

Burnsy

Burnsy2023 · 8 Jan 2007 at 00:23

camelopardis said:
I currently have Windows 2000 Professional, which was installed with a legit Microsoft Select CD. On the Microsoft Vista site, it says you can buy an upgrade version of Vista (cheaper than full retail) and do a clean install.

Will the upgrade just ask for the W2K CD to be put in the drive at some stage during the install to check that I own a previous version, or will it ask for a product key as well. the reason I ask is that Select CD's dont come with a product key - they just install without asking for a PK to be entered.

This screams dodgy to me. If your system was installed on a Select VLA then I'd expect the upgrade to either come though the same Select agreement via another purchase (because of cost) or via software assurance.

However, to answer your question, it'll probably just want the CD, although becuase this is an usual case I can't say for sure.

Burnsy

Burnsy2023 · 8 Jan 2007 at 00:25

Meatball said:
Do you need to have XP Retail to upgrade to Home Premium Retail or will XP OEM suffice?

Either is fine. Both are qualifying products.

Burnsy

Burnsy2023 · 8 Jan 2007 at 00:29

Big red said:
surely then a retail version would justify the extra money for peace of mind -- am i right?/wrong.

This is one of the debates. It all depends on how often the motherboard would be changed through the life on the machine and whether the amount of OEM licences you'd need to buy would outweight the cost of a retail licence.

It will be different for different people.

Burnsy

Burnsy2023 · 8 Jan 2007 at 00:31

[Sniper][Wolf] said:
But how will they determine when a new piece of hardware has been installed?

Also what other hardware would be concluded as having a "New system"?

They send a hash of the hardware in your ssytem to MS when you activate.

And apart from a motherboard you can replace any component bar the case where the COA is attached.

Burnsy

Burnsy2023 · 8 Jan 2007 at 00:35

shuntfield said:
I'm not too sure on this, if you Ghost it back to the exact same hardware, then I'd guess that it would still work, as long as the software was activated before the Ghosting.

I'm not going to say a definate no, because at this stage I don't know, but because the hardware has not changed then one would assume that it would be fine.

Shunts...

It'll work if it's the same machine (it takes a note of the MAC address on the NIC) but if you want to shift it to a near identical machine you'll need to reactivate.

TBH I'm really annoyed that MS has done this because it make my life a lot more difficult although I can understand why they've done it.

Burnsy

Burnsy2023 · 8 Jan 2007 at 00:37

Supertaff said:
I don't know if this is the same for OEM Vista direct purchases but it may be worth someone looking into this. I was thinking about buying the Vista OEM to do my upgrade to Vista but I am now nervous the same problem could occur.

You may get the disk and the key, but it may not activate.

Cheers

Taff

This system is only to redeem the Vista licence and will not be used with standard OEM licencing.

Well I think I've caught up, nudge me if I've missed any

Burnsy

mrochester · 8 Jan 2007 at 01:39

I can understand how changing the internals of your PC could require reactivation, but the whole changing your case thing is ridiculous. What happens if you run your PC without a case (as I have known someone to do)? Where are you supposed to stick the sticker?